Welcome to Alternate Reality, or more simply 'Life As I See It'. A recollection of a unique view of this order of things.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Fit to be Clicked

Busy, busy, busy... One of my favorite authors has passed away this week, that being Kurt Vonnegut. From the foot fetish inspiring Bokonism of Cats Cradle to the time shifting fatalism of Slaughterhouse 5 and all the existential quirkiness between, before, after and beyond his books and writing style warped my young mind in ways that would most likely take psychiatrists years to unravel should I ever give them the chance.

Moving along to some much lighter fare now. Online genealogy sites are all the rage, but ever so dry. Get Medieval on its ass and tell your families story (or any story really) by creating your very own Historic Tapestry online!

I just had Wendy's for lunch and after browsing this site, I think I am going to be sick. Morbidly fascinating, burger after burger I just couldn't click away. It's the Burger Museum.

I think Cadbury just found a new Mascot for their cream eggs. On the topic of Cockatoo's this Miller light commercial featuring a Brazilian Fighting Cockatoo was just to rich to pass up.

For the longest time, I thought the stories of The U.S. Military using animals were hoaxes, but apparently they've been using them since the 50's. The Navy's Special Ops dolphins, (and Sea lions too) may be getting a new assignment. The top brass is looking to deploy them in Washington State. While I am sure they would be helpful there, I'm placing bets that the next story about them will about how they all go AWOL and are next seen frolicking in Hawaii. There is a reason that bottle nose Dolphins don't go that far North. It's too darn cold for them!

Here is an interesting bit of Trivia. The fearsome king of the Cretaceous, the Tyrannosaurus Rex is a distant relative of modern Chickens. Scientists recently demineralized bits of a 68 million Thigh bone from one of the mighty beasts and found some protein fragments similar to those found in chicken bones. Mmmm, I bet they would make mighty good wings.

Speaking of bones, I could have thought up a much more interesting headline for this next article. 'Bones blow load', 'Scientists teach old bones new ticks.', the list just goes on. Scientists are quite excited by some experiments where they coaxed bone cells to produce immature sperm cells. While interesting, men have been milking sperm from bones for quite some time now, so while I appreciate the irony, I don't think it's anything new.

Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, has waded into some murky waters by calling for an immigration ban for those infected with HIV, so far the reaction hasn't been pretty. However such immigration bans aren't at all uncommon. Most developed countries including The UK, China, the U.S. and even the ever compassionate Canada have similar immigration restrictions that turn away those with infectious diseases, and HIV is part of that package. The debate as to whether such policies are ethical aside, I do find that them a humanitarian failure of global proportions. Higher living standards, access to cutting edge treatments, and care facilities make those afflicted with the the disease in developed countries the healthiest in the world so it's no wonder that people would want access to that.

Granted, the details on this story are a bit sketchy and I would never be one to critique Sharia legal tradition but I just think that getting 80 lashes for being sexually abused by ones stepfather is a little extreme. 20 maybe, but 80 is just over the top.